


The Time Has Come

by Scrawlers



Series: Battle City Amnesia AU [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, and sadness, sequel to "This is a Gift; It Comes With a Price", technically they're not romantically involved but the vibe is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 05:03:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17016267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scrawlers/pseuds/Scrawlers
Summary: In the aftermath of Jounouchi surviving Ra's attack, Shizuka makes arrangements for Jounouchi to come stay with her and her mother in Hanafuda City after the Battle City Finals. Yuugi knows it's for the best, but that won't make it any easier to say goodbye.





	The Time Has Come

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago, but in light of Tumblr being . . . Tumblr, I've decided to archive everything here.

The battle ship landed where it had taken off: Domino Stadium, just as the sun was setting.

The trip back had been mostly quiet, at least for Yuugi, once they discovered that both Kaiba brothers were indeed safe and in a fighter jet headed for America. Yuugi and the others had watched the destruction of the duel tower on Alcatraz island, but once the smoke faded into the distance and the battleship carried them back toward Japan, Yuugi had gone back to his room.

Part of him had thought that perhaps he shouldn’t. Maybe he should stay with Jounouchi, to try and jog his memory, to try and get him to remember something— _anything_ , even if it was just the smallest, tiniest detail of who he was. But Jounouchi’s congratulations after Yuugi and his Other Self had defeated Malik had been awkward and a little disjointed, as if he wanted to congratulate Yuugi but was still pretty confused about what had just gone on. It was clear from the look in his eyes that he still had absolutely no idea who Yuugi was or how anything that went down was significant, and Yuugi . . .

He hated to admit it, but he couldn’t stand to see that look in Jounouchi’s eyes.

So he took some time to himself to prepare for when they touched ground in Domino. Tomorrow would be a new day, he decided. Maybe it would be easier to jog Jounouchi’s memory once they were back home. They could spend time in the game shop, could hit up their usual burger joint or the arcade . . . there had be something back home that could help Jounouchi to remember their friendship. There  _had_ to be. It was this thought that Yuugi kept with him, held as tightly as he would a lifeline, even as they stepped down the exit ramp into Domino Stadium. He took a deep breath of fresh air—a welcome relief, after having been inside the blimp for most of the ride back—and turned to suggest that maybe they could head back to his place—

“So, uh . . . just wondering, but . . . does anyone . . . know where I live?”

—but Jounouchi spoke up before he could.

Jounouchi wasn’t the last one off the blimp’s exit ramp, though he still lingered a little behind the rest of them, his hands in his pockets. He looked uncomfortable, Yuugi thought, like he hadn’t wanted to ask, but didn’t know what else to do. But there was a little defiance, there, too—a little  _something_ in his eyesas he scanned the rest of them and noticed that they now looked as awkward and uncomfortable as he must have felt, and that . . .  _that_ looked more like the Jounouchi Yuugi knew. That was the Jounouchi he wanted to see.

“Uh, well . . .” Honda said, and he scratched the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at Jounouchi. “Yeah, I, uh—I know where you live.”

“Oh, good.” Jounouchi smiled a little, tentatively, and forced a laugh. “It’s just that, you know, that information wasn’t on Doc’s medical sheet, so—”

“Um, actually,” Shizuka interrupted, and her voice cracked a little when she spoke. She had her hands clasped tightly in front of her, her fingers twined together; she was squeezing them for all she was worth. She was nervous, and Yuugi felt a sudden swoop of dread in his stomach as he wondered why. “I, um—on the ride home, I . . . I called Mom.”

“Oh. Okay?” Jounouchi said. Yuugi’s heart was beating so fast he thought he could feel it smacking against his ribs. He looked over to see that Honda and Anzu exchanged worried looks, while Otogi raised an eyebrow in question and Bakura frowned in puzzlement. “So this whole thing—it won’t be a surprise to her, then?”

“Well, no, but that’s not . . .” Shizuka took a deep breath. “Big bro, we don’t—we don’t actually live together, normally. Our parents divorced years ago. Mom took me to live in Hanafuda City, to live closer to Grandma, and you stayed here in Domino with Dad.”

“Oh. Is that why our family names are different?” Jounouchi asked, and Shizuka nodded. “Huh. That’s one mystery solved.”

“Why did you think your family names were different?” Otogi asked, and he sounded bemused.

Jounouchi shrugged. “I figured Shizuka was probably adopted or something.”

Something akin to surprise and hurt crossed Shizuka’s face, but the expression was gone by the time Jounouchi looked back at her. She was staring at the ground. “Well, the point is, I asked Honda-san what Dad was like on the way back, after Yuugi-san’s duel ended. He didn’t tell me much, but he said that . . . he said that Dad’s not a very good . . . he said it probably wasn’t safe for me to go see Dad, to explain what happened. And from that, I figured that it’s probably not very safe for you to go back there, either. Especially not like this.”

Realization clicked in Jounouchi’s eyes. Even with his memory gone, he still didn’t seem very slow on the uptake. “Oh.”

“So,” Shizuka pressed on, “I borrowed Anzu-san’s phone once we were back in range, and I called Mom, and I told her that there had been an accident and that you lost your memory because of it. I also told her about Dad, although she kind of already knew about some of that, and I told her that I was worried about you going back to Dad’s like this, and she agreed, and she said that . . .” Shizuka took a deep, steadying breath, and lifted her head to look Jounouchi straight in the eye before she said in a rush, “She said that you can come stay with us in Hanafuda City. We leave tomorrow morning.”

It was as if someone had pulled the last bottom block out of an already unstable Jenga tower. The dread that Yuugi had felt the minute Shizuka spoke up flared into full on alarm that left him feeling numb, paralyzed, as he stared at Jounouchi with wide eyes, his heart pounding so hard that it left him feeling short of breath and maybe even a little dizzy. He opened his mouth to say something, to question it, to say they could figure something else out, that Jounouchi didn’t have to  _leave_ , but all he could manage was, “Wait . . . hold on a second, what—?”

“Is that really going to be okay?” Otogi asked, and he crossed his arms with a puzzled frown. “Don’t divorces usually come with custody agreements for the kids? Won’t your mom be breaking that if Jounouchi goes to stay with you?”

 _Yes,_ Yuugi thought, and a distant note of pain in his palms made him realize he was squeezing the Millennium Puzzle far too tightly.  _Thank you, Otogi-kun, that—_

“Mom said we’ll worry about that later,” Shizuka said, and Yuugi felt his stomach drop. “I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem anyway, from what Honda-san told me about Dad. And even if Dad realizes that my brother is gone, he doesn’t have to know where . . .”

“He’ll probably notice, but it won’t be the first time Jounouchi’s disappeared for awhile,” Honda said quietly. “And it’s not like he knows who any of us are, since Jounouchi’s done a pretty good job of keeping us away from his place, so it’s not like he can track any of us down to ask.”

“Exactly,” Shizuka said, and as she smiled a little Yuugi looked away, biting the inside of his cheek as he stared at the stadium seats instead. “So you see, big bro, everything’ll be okay. Maybe we can even talk to some doctors, to see if maybe they can do something about your memory. I mostly only know ophthalmologists, but I’m sure they can recommend someone who might be able to help you.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Jounouchi said, and Yuugi swallowed hard.

“You said you leave tomorrow morning, right?” Bakura asked. “Where are you staying tonight?”

“I figured we could find a hotel near the train station,” Shizuka said. “Mom said to look for one, and to call her when we got there so she could send us some money, or else maybe pay for a room over the phone with her credit card—”

“There’s no need for that,” Honda said gruffly. “You guys can stay with me. I’ll go to Jounouchi’s place to get some of his stuff, too.”

“Are you sure?” Shizuka asked.

“Definitely. My sister moved out awhile ago, so we have a spare room you guys can use. It’s no problem at all.”

“Thanks, Honda-san.” Gratitude and relief were both thick in Shizuka’s voice, and it was great, Yuugi thought, that Honda had that spare room he could offer them for the night. It was really, really great.

There was only one exit to the stadium, and once it was decided that Honda would take Jounouchi and Shizuka back to his place (and that the others would go with them, to help Honda get Jounouchi’s things from his apartment), they all made their way toward it. Yuugi followed along behind them, but once they reached the stadium gates he stepped away, separating himself from the rest of their group. As he would have expected from her, Anzu noticed immediately and turned to look at him with a frown.

“Yuugi?” she asked. 

“You guys can . . . handle this, right?” he asked, and he hated how his own voice cracked a little, and how the eyes that turned on him were clouded with worry, confusion, or—in Otogi’s case, at the least— _pity_. “I figure I should probably go home to check in with Mom and Grandpa, and if you all are headed to Jounouchi-kun’s place together, then—”

“I’ll go with you,” Anzu said. “I’m sure Honda and the others can handle getting Jounouchi’s stuff—”

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Honda said.

Yuugi shook his head, and despite how he felt more like vomiting instead, he forced a smile. “No, it’s okay. I’ve been gone for awhile, so they’ll probably just want to see me, and it’s not like my house is too far from here. I can make it back on my own.” 

“Well, I can at least walk back with you part of the way,” Anzu suggested. “My house is in the same direction—”

“It’s really fine,” Yuugi insisted. “You should go help the others. You’re better at noticing smaller details than they are—you’ll help them find things they might miss otherwise.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Otogi grumbled, and at the same time Yuugi felt a sense of disapproval in the back of his mind.

“Yuugi,” Anzu said softly, “I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

 _‘She’s right,’_ Yuugi's Other Self said quietly, and Yuugi clenched his jaw.  _‘You should accept her offer.’_

“I’m fine,”  Yuugi said, speaking to both of them. “Besides, I’m never really alone, am I?” He lifted the heavy Puzzle around his neck, and understanding lit in Anzu’s eyes that told Yuugi right then and there that she was going to drop the fight. “So I’ll . . . I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Will you come to the train station tomorrow?” Shizuka asked. It was an innocent question, Yuugi knew, and Yuugi knew also that although she didn’t know him very well, she still considered him to be a friend. And he was—he  _was_ her friend, even if— “Our train leaves at nine.”

“Um . . .” Yuugi swallowed, and glanced over at Jounouchi. His heart jolted when he saw that Jounouchi was watching him, though Yuugi couldn’t tell what the look on Jounouchi’s face was supposed to mean. “I—maybe. If I have time.”

“Oh.” Shizuka nodded, her lips pressed together in a little smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Okay. Well, I hope you can make it. If not, then . . .” She gave him a quick, small bow. “Thank you very much, Yuugi-san. For everything. And I hope that I can see you again someday.”

“Yeah,” Yuugi said, and Jounouchi looked away, staring out at buildings in a city Yuugi knew he no longer recognized. “Me, too. Goodbye, Shizuka-chan. And . . .” He looked back at Jounouchi, but nothing that came to mind— _good luck, see you later, thank you, I’m sorry, goodbye—_ was acceptable to say. As if he could sense it, Jounouchi looked back to Yuugi, and as their eyes met, Yuugi’s heart found itself lodged in his throat. He nodded to Jounouchi, in lieu of anything else to say, and before Anzu could change her mind about leaving Yuugi alone, he turned and left. The relief he felt when they didn’t follow was buried beneath everything else, and even though Anzu and the others didn’t pursue him down the little side street he took to further separate himself from their group by removing himself from their sight, he hadn’t been wrong with what he’d told Anzu before.

 _‘You should have accepted Anzu’s offer,’_ his Other Self said, and Yuugi squeezed the Puzzle as he walked, digging his nails into the grooves between the pieces. The side street opened back up onto a main road on the opposite side, and he took a right when he reached the road, intending on taking a longer route back home than was strictly necessary.  _‘You could use the company right now, partner.’_

“I have company. You’re here, right?” Yuugi asked. As always, he kept his voice down, even though there weren’t too many people out at that time in the evening to overhear him seemingly talking to himself. “Besides, I . . . I’m fine. It’s fine. Everything’s fine, there’s no need to treat this like . . .” Yuugi tried to find the right word, but when none came to mind he simply said, “It’s okay.”

 _‘You’re not fine,’_ his Other Self said, and Yuugi ground his teeth together.  _‘Jounouchi-kun is moving away tomorrow, isn’t he? From what I remember, his sister lives far away, which means—’_

“Yeah, but he doesn’t remember me anyway, so it’s like Malik’s other personality said, isn’t it? Even if he stayed in Domino, it’s not like he’d  _really_ be here.”

 _‘You shouldn’t take what Malik said to heart_ ,’ his Other Self said firmly.  _‘And I know that you didn’t. We discussed it—’_

“And even if it wasn’t, or I didn’t, it’s really okay, it’s for the best.” Yuugi stared down at the Puzzle as he watched. In the evening sunset, the golden pieces looked like they had a reddish hue. “You don’t know, because you never saw, but his dad—his dad is really awful, Other Me. He’s hurt Jounouchi-kun before, and Honda-kun was right, he probably won’t ever even try to find out why Jounouchi-kun doesn’t come home. His dad is—it’s really awful that Jounouchi-kun has had to live there all this time. It’s good that he won’t have to anymore.”

_‘That may be, but—’_

“He’ll be better off with his mom. She’ll never hurt him, not like his dad did. It seems like she took good care of Shizuka-chan, so she’ll do the same for Jounouchi-kun, too. It . . . he probably should have lived with her from the start. She should have taken him in years ago, when she first left.” Yuugi squeezed the Puzzle tighter, his eyes stinging. “If she had, then . . . then I never even would have met him, right? So—so if you think about it, then there’s really nothing to be upset about, be-because I got to spend all of this extra time with Jounouchi-kun that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

_‘Yuugi—’_

“And this way he’ll—he’ll get to live with Shizuka-chan, which I know he—he really always w-wanted, so—” Yuugi’s breath hitched as tears splashed down onto the top of the Millennium Puzzle. “So really, it’s—it’s—I’m—I’m ha-happy he’s—”

It was fortunate that it was so late in the evening. Yuugi’s detour had taken him through Domino Park, but as his words broke off into reckless sobs, and he crouched against a bridge railing to bury his face in his arms to hide his tears from any potential passersby, his Other Self was the only one around to witness it, his presence emanating nothing but as much comfort and empathy as he could from his place in the back of Yuugi’s mind.

**\- - -**

Yuugi hadn’t planned on going to the train station.

He’d lobbed every excuse he could think of at his Other Self to justify why he wasn’t going to go. The others would be there, he said, so it wasn’t as if Shizuka and Jounouchi wouldn’t have a proper send off. Jounouchi didn’t remember him anyway, so he probably wouldn’t mind that Yuugi wasn’t there. Jounouchi had been uncomfortable before, given that Yuugi wanted him to remember, so he didn’t want to make Jounouchi feel worse before he left. But no matter what reason he gave, his Other Self wasn’t having it. Even as Yuugi had pulled his comforter up over his head, trying to block it out, he could feel his Other Self's sense of disapproval and frustration like a dark cloud in the back of his mind.

 _‘You need to go,’_ his Other Self had insisted.  _‘You’ll regret it if you don’t. I know you will.’_

Yuugi didn’t want to admit it, but he referred to the Spirit of the Puzzle as his  _Other Self_ for a reason. In some ways, Yuugi supposed, it was only natural that the spirit knew him better than perhaps he knew—or  _wanted_ to know—himself. And so, despite the dread that made him want to run in the opposite direction, Yuugi made his way to Domino Station, and made it there with only ten minutes to spare.

As Yuugi had predicted, Honda, Anzu, Bakura, and even Otogi were all there to see Jounouchi and Shizuka off. By the time he found them, five of Yuugi’s ten minutes had already passed. When he approached, he saw Shizuka say something to Jounouchi before she turned and boarded the train, and Honda, Anzu, Bakura, and Otogi stepped back to give Yuugi and Jounouchi some space to talk (although Honda had to drag Otogi away by his arm).

“Hi,” Yuugi said, once the others were (at least mostly) out of earshot. His mouth felt dry, and given the way Jounouchi ran his hand through his hair, he figured that Jounouchi probably felt the same jittery feeling in his stomach that Yuugi did.

“I . . . didn’t think you were gonna show up,” Jounouchi said.

Yuugi felt a cold shiver of shame slip down his spine. “I didn’t think I was either,” he admitted. “But I—I changed my mind. I wanted to see you before you left.”

“Thanks,” Jounouchi said, and Yuugi felt his heart give a jolt when he looked up to see that Jounouchi was smiling at him. “I appreciate it.”

Yuugi opened his mouth to reply—with what, he didn’t know—when Jounouchi’s eyes widened, something like recognition flashing through his eyes. Before Yuugi could question that (and before any sort of hope that Jounouchi had remembered something could take up root in his head), Jounouchi shoved his hands into his pockets, as if he was looking for something.

“Oh, right,” Jounouchi said, “I wanted to tell you—I was, uh—I thought about what you said before. Last night, I mean. I was thinking about it.”

Yuugi blinked, and wracked his brain for what Jounouchi could have been talking about. “Oh?” he said, as Jounouchi pulled a folded up piece of notebook paper out of his pocket.

“Yeah. And I’m not sure I got it, but—”

A jingle rang through the station, signaling that the train was about to depart, and Shizuka leaned out of the train car doors. “Big bro!” she called. “It’s time—we have to go!”

“Be right there!” Jounouchi called. He’d unfolded the paper part way, and he chewed his lip as he stared at whatever was written there before he folded it back up. “I don’t know if this’ll make much sense,” he said. “Or if it’s anything close to what you were thinking, but—here.” He held the folded piece of paper out to Yuugi, and Yuugi took it gently. “I hope it’s close, anyway.”

“Oh, uh—thanks,” Yuugi said, as the one-minute-’til warning jingle rang through the station.

“Big bro!” Shizuka called.

“Right. I’ve gotta go.” Jounouchi adjusted the shoulder strap of his backpack, and nodded once toward Yuugi. “Hey—take care of yourself, okay? And maybe . . . maybe we can see each other again someday.”

“Yeah,” Yuugi said. “I hope so. You take care too, okay?”

Jounouchi nodded, flashed another small smile at Yuugi, and then turned and bolted back toward the train. He made it through the doors just before they closed, and as the train pulled out of the station and Anzu and the others started back toward Yuugi, Yuugi unfolded the piece of paper Jounouchi had given him.

It was covered in Jounouchi’s messy scrawl. There were doodles and drawings along the margins, as if he’d been trying to work something out, but Yuugi’s heart stilled when he saw the sentence written at the very top:

_“It’s something that’s in plain sight, but it’s invisible.”_

Underneath that sentence were various potential answers, such as,  _Ghosts? But why ghosts though_ and  _Maybe memories? Like my memories with people, like I can see things but not remember_. But near the bottom were doodles of stick figures—stick figures that Yuugi thought resembled them, if the one with the star-shaped hair quite like his was anything to go by—and these had lines connecting each of them. Above these doodles Jounouchi had written the word,  _Relationships_ , and next to the people he wrote the word,  _Visible_  with an arrow pointing to them, while the word  _Invisible_ hovered near by, and had an arrow pointing to the lines connecting them. The entire thing had one big circle drawn around it, which Yuugi thought meant Jounouchi had chosen this as his final answer.

The sound of his heart pounding in his ears drowned out whatever Bakura was trying to say to him, and Yuugi was barely aware of what he was doing as he pushed past his other friends and bolted to the platform—

But the train was gone. Yuugi stopped himself short just before he stepped off onto the tracks, and his arms fell to his sides as he watched the train disappear into the distance. He could feel himself shaking, and though part of him was scared he might put his nails through the paper if he held it too tight, he held it in a tightly clenched fist all the same.

Jounouchi . . . probably hadn’t remembered, not really, but he had . . . he had figured it out. Figured it out, or maybe subconsciously remembered, or—either way, no matter which one it was, Jounouchi had done it. He’d gotten it. He got the answer right in the end.

And as Yuugi stood there, staring down the empty train tracks even when Anzu came and put her hands on his shoulders, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do with that information.


End file.
